Skunked and swept to sea, almost...

Christian and Bridge came to stay for the weekend.
They arrived Friday night and we enjoyed a nice dinner out, followed by a killer game of boggle at home. In the meantime, Blackjack ventured outside and under the deck where he encountered one of the local skunks. Yep, you guessed it, he got sprayed!
The next day we decided to head to the beach to see the large swells (it had been stormy earlier in the week), the forecast predicted 20-30ft waves. We thought maybe running around the beach would help Blackjack get rid of his smell. The skunk scent remained, but he made friends with lots of dogs.
Christian and Bridge took the lead walking out to the jetty (the warning signs must have washed out to sea!) At one point CD decided that he didn't have the right shoes on to navigate the large puddles, so we turned back to wait for them on the beach. I yelled out "I don't think this is a good idea!", meaning we shouldn't continue on the jetty. The waves were trying really hard to come up and over. Christian couldn't hear me over the ocean's roar and they continued.



By the time they came back they were soaked and freaked out. The waves had attacked and knocked them over. They were completely wet and glad to be alive, but the damage extended to wet cellphones and ripped pants. We headed home in defeat!



That afternoon, after showers and laundry, we ate some delicious Indian food take-out and proceeded to clean Blackjack. The recipe for getting rid of the skunk smell is: 1 quart hydrogen peroxide, 1/4 cup baking soda and 1 tsp liquid detergent. CD and Christian lathered up the dog:



I helped to dry him off:



It was great to see Christian and meet Bridge and the visit was really fun even if they got skunked and almost swept to sea! Hopefully next time they come, things will be a bit smoother :)
After they left on Sunday, we planted some bulbs for the Spring:



While digging in the dirt, this praying mantis stayed close by- so beautiful!

Pumpkins!

Last weekend I visited my first corn maze. It seems I was in sync with people celebrating Anna's birthday up in Seattle/Snohomish who also went to a corn maze on the same day. Coincidence??
While there we picked up some beautiful pumpkins. Nothing says fall like large squash!





Here's a little guest on the deck:



In the meantime we have been receiving carrots weekly form the CSA farm, but these were too funny not to post. I call them carrotlegs:


These became carrot ginger soup, yum!

Flying and Fall

It does seem that lately I only take time to update the blog on Fridays, probably because I have the day off and CD is at work and of course, I'm procrastinating household chores!
Last week sometime (Tuesday?) the weather was clear, so CD took me flying. It was really cool to see the coastline. I love the look of rivers and bodies of water in general from above (thank goodness for Google Earth!) We just cruised around the Bay for about a half hour, but that seemed plenty of time to admire the geography below.
Humboldt Bay:



This is the Samoa bridge which connects Eureka to Samoa and crosses Woodley Island where the marina is:



South of town, the Eel River is extremely low:



and another inlet:



Last weekend we took the last opportunity to hike and camp this season. People keep talking about the imminent snow approaching and by the temperatures we experienced I'm sure that any precipitation up in the Trinity Wilderness will be frozen.
We mostly drove up to see the changing colors in the trees, but were slightly disappointed because most trees are evergreens!



We hiked up a couple of miles up the Canyon Creek trail, but were most impressed by the campsites near the trailhead. This is Ripstein camp:



I love rocks and trees wearing their little moss sweaters:

Jason

Our good friend Jason came down for the weekend. He arrived on Thursday evening and met us in Arcata. We had gone to the Jambalaya to see Seattle band The Cops perform. There was an opening band, Machete from Eureka- was it metal? Not sure. Both bands were extremely loud!! On Friday Jason drove down to the Avenue of the Giants, unfortunately I had forgotten that I had training that afternoon (Certified in First Responder Operations now! woo hoo!)
Jason had brought us a nifty deck-warming gift: pot o' fire!



I don't really know what the official name is for this product, but basically a really nice ceramic container in which you burn an alcohol gel. Each can of gel-ol (I made that up!) lasts approximately 3 hours. It came in really handy on Friday night because the power was out for a few hours. The story: when I returned home from training the power was out and even though my stove is gas, the oven is controlled electronically. Anyway, how do you bake when the power is out? We had a great dinner at Avalon in downtown Eureka.
Saturday we slept in and then headed to the Arcata Community Forest for a walk in the woods. I have been here for several months now and have heard lots of good things about the community forest, but hadn't really checked it out. It's AWESOME!
The only danger is the weird hippies that may or may not pop out from the trees :)




After our little trek we headed to the Six Rivers Brewery for happy hour. We all enjoyed some Sasquatch- the strongest ale they make. CD was generous and stopped after one beer- we had to get home somehow.




That evening we decide to stay in and enjoy our time on the deck with the pot o' fire at our feet. We heard some rustling under the deck and assumed it was racoons. The next afternoon, after Jason had left to go back to Seattle, CD and I discovered the culprits: deer!
Here is the family of 5 deer by the tomato plants (by the way, none of the fruits on those tomato plants ripened, the summer is too cold here)